Shadowfeet
by writestyle
Summary: Sometimes you don't know what you need until you have it. Killa is a time traveler, but there is more to her than what she lets on. She prefers to be out of the way, to observe rather than be observed, but sometimes life pushes you into the spotlight. And that's when things get complicated. Starts from Time of Angels and goes on from there.


**Killa, short for Killashandra, is pronounced Kyla.**

**The Time Of Angels, Part 1**

An isolated tornado of dust pulled her from the spherical platform which hovered over a gaping hole in the ship's hangar bay. A rock bed lay beneath her feet, pieces jutting out like blunt swords and indents, and tiny tunnels made by the force of the ocean over thousands of years. Killa could not think of any recent time when she had been so grateful to feel a barrier or floor of some type between her feet and nothing. The thin slip of metal that held her some fifty meters above a slab of weathered rock, looked more like a sheet of paper floating in the breeze rather than a magnetised transport pad. She glanced in River's direction, seeing the collection of oddly dressed humanoids standing a length away, through the dust that evaporated around her body, dissipating into the air and returning to the ship above.

Walking across the surface, dodging each rock pool in her path with wide steps that carried her across the dips and puddles of water, she made her way towards the trio. She didn't bother to wait for the team to be transported down or to hear an order from the man that was bringing her to this hell. Instead, she came to a stop in front of the older woman who she would be working with on this mission, eyes drinking in the frizzing hair and the out of place evening dress. She had never seen Doctor River Song in anything other than her uniform. For her situation, River certainly was beautiful in the crimson tide of satin resting on her shoulders. With a quick admiring glance at River's shoes, she spoke for the first time to the other woman, "You look nice." She took her time to take in the orange copper flame of hair the Human had and the strange bow tie wearing man. "I see you've acquired yourself some help." She looked past the Time Lord and his, quite lovely, red headed companion, to the blue police box standing out of place on the rocks. Another oddity on the planet. "And a TARDIS." Now she was intrigued, she never thought she would see this particular blue box. "Are you both coming into the tomb?"

The Doctor looked at the stranger trying to sort through his many regeneration's memories to see if he had ever encountered a woman like the one before him. Hardly anyone these days, even less than that-it was more like a handful in the whole entire universe these days- could identify the old girl in one fell swoop, without having encountered her or one of her sisters before. Or maybe she had heard the stories or legends from somewhere in the universe about a traveler and his big blue box? Not paying attention to the simple words being passed from the stranger before him, an enthusiastic "Yes" that slipped from the mouth of the impossible Pond startled the old Time Lord, making him turn to face the fiery redhead; "Yes. What? No." He had a reason as to why she could not come, on the very tip of his tongue, but before he could get a word in she stopped him with three words, "You promised Doctor."

Of course he promised. She would have forced him to before he could step foot on foreign ground.

Killa smirked at the redhead, the young girl reminded her of her son. She turned to River, "Where did you find this antique?" she asked with a careless wave of her hand at the TARDIS which loomed over the Doctor's shoulder.

Amy, assuming that the stranger was referring to the Doctor and his bow tie, grinned at the appalled look on his face.

The Doctor looked at the woman before coming to the defense of his beloved time machine, "Oi! She's not old! Really very new. New coat of paint. Type 40 TARDIS."

Killa looked on with interest. She wanted to have a look inside the machine, to see what was hidden within, and maybe even fly it if she could recall her mother's memories. Perhaps, when this was all over, she could hitchhike to whatever planet they were going to next. "Like I said, antique."

A voice called out to the group before a body emerged from the assembly of soldiers. "You promised me an army Doctor Song." The face of the Bishop, a man that would be leading his flock to their deaths, reminded the two eldest women of their obligations at the current time.

"No, I promised you the equivalent of an army. This is the Doctor."

River looked over at the time traveler, who had yet to introduce herself to her, as the Bishop glared in her direction, asking even though it seemed as though he didn't believe her, "And did you do your part?"

She held up an old dog-eared book, signs of wear evident in the creases of the leather and the broken spine. "I don't make promises I can't keep." Passing the book onto River who took it in with wide eyes, she held out her hand to the older man waiting to get her vortex manipulator back. "I believe we're even now."

The Bishop merely scowled at her, "Not even close. Once you bring us out of this mission alive, not sooner." He ignore the woman's glare, dismissing her with the turn of his head and introduced himself to the Doctor, shaking his hand in anticipation of the task ahead, "Father Octavian, sir. Bishop, second class. 20 clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song is helping us with a covert investigation." He looked at the Doctor examining his face to see if the young man had any idea as to what he was up against or if Doctor Song had indeed delivered on her promise. He didn't quite believe that this young man could be of any use to them, at least not any more than the time traveler in his charge. "Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?"

A blank look on the Doctor's face confirmed his suspicions.

"Doctor, what do you know of the Weeping Angels?"

-xox-

Father Octavian led the Doctor and two women into the cave, explaining the task that they faced to the Doctor, while Killa trailed behind with a confused Amy. "The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship. Our mission is to get inside and neutralize it. We can't get through up top, we'd be too close to the drives. According to this," Octavian held up what Amy thought was some sort of advanced form of Satnav, "behind the cliff face, there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up."

"Oh, good." The Doctor said to himself.

"Good, sir?"

"Catacombs, probably dark ones." The Doctor continued. "Dark catacombs. Great."

"Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead." Octavian said.

"You can stop anytime you like."

Killa stood back from the two men and the little human girl and watched the exchange in interest, remembering just how her conversation with the Bishop had been similar to this. They would be lucky to come out of this death trap alive.

"Father Octavian!" One of the soldiers called from the other side of the cave, where a majority of the soldiers were gathered, setting up the explosives.

"Excuse me, sir." Octavian said to the Doctor, before making his way over to the clerics who were setting up the detonators.

The Doctor spun around and looked at the instruments in the box, picking them up and turning them over before putting them back down.

"You're letting people call you 'sir'." Amy pointed out. "You never do that. So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?"

"Now that's interesting…" the Doctor said slowly, turning to face her. "You're still here. Which part of 'Wait in the TARDIS till I tell you it's safe' was so confusing?"

"Ooh, are you all Mr Grumpy Face today?" Amy asked.

"A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest; most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced." The Doctor warned. "And one is trapped inside that wreckage, and I'm supposed to climb in with a screwdriver and a torch-and assuming I survive the radiation and without assuming the whole ship doesn't blow up in my face-do something extremely clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day. That's what I'm up to. Any questions?"

"Is River Song your wife?" Amy asked, having ignored the Doctor's moaning of the situation. She didn't doubt that the Doctor could save the day with the same ease and confidence that she had seen in him two years ago. "'Cause she's someone from your future, and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that. She's kind of like, you know, 'Heel, boy!' She's Mrs Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she going to be your wife one day?"

"Yes." The Doctor said with a dejected sigh, not seeing Amy's eyes widen, "You're right. I am definitely Mr Grumpy Face today." He didn't jump in surprise when he heard the woman speak, knowing that she had been standing behind Amy for the past 30 seconds. He was however surprised by her answer.

"They're as bad as Daleks. Sometimes worse." She spoke up, revealing herself to Amy as she answered the young girl's question. "They turn to stone when you look at them, but once you look away, just for a second, or even blink, they move faster than light and kill you within an instant." She glanced at the tunnel opening before turning back to Amy, "Makes looking at statues rather difficult after that. You can't turn your back or you're dead."

"What a load of rubbish!" The Doctor said. "Angel's send you back in time and feed off the time energy-"

"Of the days that were meant to occur but don't." Killa finished for him.

The Doctor didn't understand. If this stranger knew what the Weeping Angels did, then why was she spurting off information that didn't make any sense? "What's your part in all," the Doctor waved his hands about before continuing, "this?"

Killa smiled bitterly, "Destroyed some statues. Apparently I'm in debt to the Church." She turned to Amy to give the human a very different explanation, "I'm the expert they had on hand. I warned them that it was a fool's errand, they should have evacuated the planet rather than gone looking for the Angel."

"Expert? Have you even encountered an Angel?" The Doctor asked in disbelief.

"The Church doesn't believe in the Weeping Angels." Killa said, dismissing the Doctor's question. "They're convinced that they're a myth, just like you. If we're really lucky, we won't all die."

"Doctor? Doctor!" River called from the doorway of a pod. "Father Octavian!"

The three of them made their way over to the pod where the soldiers had set up the video feed.

"Why do they call him Father?" Amy asked as they walked.

"He's their Bishop, they're his clerics." The Doctor replied. "It's the 51st Century, the Church has moved on." He didn't quite believe the woman with no name. The fact that she didn't have a name didn't help. He couldn't keep calling her 'the stranger' or just 'the woman', it wasn't an adequate description when she was a strange-crazy-lady that lied and told half-truths.

They walked into the pod and found themselves staring at a fuzzy black and white recording of an angel facing away from the camera, with its head in its hands.

"What do you think?" River asked the Doctor as he walked into the room. "It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. Its four seconds. I've put it on loop."

"Yeah, it's an Angel." The Doctor confirmed. "Hands covering its face."

"You've encountered the Angels before?" Octavian asked, surprised that the young man had encountered something like this before. He didn't seem anything like the stories of the Doctor which Octavian had heard throughout his life of service.

"Once, on Earth, a long time ago." The Doctor said. "But those were scavengers, barely surviving."

"It's just a statue." Amy said.

"It's a statue when you see it." Killa reminded her. "They're stuck in a quantum lock when you look at them, meaning they can't move, hence the appearance-."

"Quantum locking is for hover boards, not Weeping Angels." River interrupted. She had traveled throughout the universe and never once had she encountered a Weeping Angel. She had heard the horror stories about the marble monsters, but they had been told around campfires, with each story teller giving a different version.

"It's not named after Earth quantum physics." Killa said softly, knowing that the older woman did not believe her.

"Where did it come from?" The Doctor asked, interrupting the two women before anything could start.

"Pulled from the ruins of Razbahan at the end of the last century." River said. "It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all that time."

Killa snorted, "Those things are never dormant."

The Doctor glanced at the strange-crazy-lady who was finally telling some truths, before looking back at River. "There's a difference between dormant and patience."

"What's that mean, 'its a statue when you see it'?" Amy asked River, instead of the other slightly younger woman, who she was sure was having her on.

"The Weeping Angels can only move if they're unseen." River said. "So legend has it."

"No, it's not legend, it's a quantum lock." The Doctor said. "In the sight of any living creature, the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defense mechanism."

"What, being a stone?" Amy asked.

"Being a stone…until you turn your back." He said. "The hyper driver would've split open on impact. That whole ship will be flooded with drive flow radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms, deadly to almost any living thing."

"Deadly to an Angel?" Octavian asked, hopeful that this mission might be easier than this young Doctor had led him to believe.

"Dinner to an Angel." The Doctor said. "The longer we leave it, the stronger it will grow. Who built that temple? Are they still around?"

"The Aplans." River said, looking at her handheld device. "Indigenous life-forms. They died out about 400 years ago."

"200 years later, the planet was terraformed." Octavian added. "Currently there are six billion human colonists."

"Woo. You lot, you're everywhere!" The Doctor cried out. "Like rabbits! I'll never get done saving you."

"Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population…" Octavian began.

"I've been telling you from the start that there was danger and you didn't believe me. It's only now that you think it might actually be real?" Killa snarled at Octavian, surprising him with her outburst. She had been quiet and out of the way even during her capture and arrest, giving the Church no more than she wanted them to know.

The Doctor ignored the strange-crazy-lady and replied with a grin, "Bad as it gets. Bishop, lock and load!"

"Verger, how are we doing with those explosives?" Octavian called over to another of his clerics. "Doctor Song, with me." He added.

"Two minutes. Sweetie, I need you." She called to the Doctor from a bench a few meters away.

The Doctor rolled the word over his tongue and wondered where she got those pet names from before he turned to join her. Amy stood in the doorway of the pod and couldn't help but feel as though she had been left behind. "Amy, was it?" Amy turned to see the other woman still standing in the same spot, in the corner of the little container.

"Yeah."

Killa smiled and held out her hand to Amy, "I'm Killa."

-xox-

River handed the book that Killa had given to Octavia, to the Doctor. "_Definitive work on the Angels_. Well, the only one. Written by a madman. It's barely readable, but she marked a few passages."

The Doctor flipped through the book from start to finish, reading the pages that turned with lightning speed. "Not bad, bit slow in the middle, didn't you hate his girlfriend?" He mumbled. "No, hang on, wait, wait!" He sniffed the book, hoping it would give him the missing piece. "This book is wrong! What's wrong with this book? Its' wrong."

-xox-

Amy shook Killa's hand and took a step back from the brown haired woman. "Have you actually seen a Weeping Angel before?" She asked.

"A few." Killa answered, her eyes having returned to the black and white image of the Angel.

Amy raised an eyebrow, "Those statues you destroyed?"

Killa turned her attention back to Amy and smiled at the girl. "Something like that."

"Why doesn't the Doctor believe you?"

"The Doctor thinks he's the smartest person in the room, and usually he is." Killa explained. "He doesn't like it when someone knows more than he does."

"Have you met the Doctor before?" Amy asked, wondering if Killa, like River, was a part of the Doctor's future.

"No. This is the first time I've met the legend." She looked back at the screen and thought for a moment that she dreaming. She blinked, hoping that her fear of the Angels had created the image of the Angel with its hands lowered, but the Angel stood there with its arms held out from its sides.

The door to the container closed and the wheeled turned, sealing the two women inside.

Amy jumped at the sound and spun around to look at the door. She turned to Killa, positive that the other woman was pulling a prank on her, but stopped short of snapping at her when she saw what it was that had Killa's stare transfixed. "Its just a recording. It can't move." She reassured herself. She looked Killa, "River said that there were only four seconds. What did you do to make it move?"

"Nothing. It's the Angel."

"Its just a recording. It can't hurt us."

"It must have rerouted the power to lock the door. It can't _just_ be a recording if it did that." Killa said. "Amy, I need you to look at the Angel. Don't take your eyes off it!" Killa turned away from the screen, going against every screaming instinct in her body, taking her eyes away from the screen to look at the once open door. She tried to come up with an escape plan, but with the Angel in control of the electronics there would be no way for her to short circuit the door. She looked back at the screen to see that the Angel had moved to stand in the foreground of the recording, its terrifying figure filling the screen. Killa swore in a language that Amy didn't understand, surprising since the TARDIS usually translated whatever was said for her. "I told you to look at it!" Killa snapped.

-xox-

River smiled as she watched the Doctor turn the pages of the book, in the manner that reminded her of a child. "Oh, it's so strange when you go all baby-face. How early is this for you?"

"Very early." The Doctor said, eyes glued to the book in his hands. "So who's the other one on this mission? The strange-crazy-lady? Has she got a name?"

"Don't know, she never said. I doubt the Church even knows." River sighed, hating her timeline, not for the first time. "So you don't know who I am yet?"

"How do you know who I am? I don't always look the same." He looked up from the book, "What do you mean not even the Church knows?"

"They caught her in a vault trying to destroy religious statues with nanities, claiming there was a Weeping Angel hiding in there. The Church sent a team in to investigate, but they never came out. She's drawn to trouble just like you." She said. "I've got pictures of a few of your faces. You never show up in the right order though. I need the spotter's guide."

"Pictures?" He looked down at the book and voiced the thoughts running through his head, "Why aren't there any pictures? This whole book-it's a warning about the Weeping Angels. So why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?"

"There was a bit about images." River said, taking the book from the Doctor and flipping through the marked pages for the one she wanted. "What was it?" She asked herself as she searched.

"Yes! Hang on…" The Doctor stole book from River's hands and opened the book to the first page. "'_That which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel'_."

"What does that mean?" River asked him. "'_An image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel_'?"

The Doctor stilled as the realisation dawned on him, he'd just left Amy with the recording of the Angel. He sprinted towards the container with River on his tail, calling out to his companion, "Amy!" There was no reply from inside the pod, but the Doctor kept calling out, hoping that she could hear him. "Are you alright? What's happening?" Dread rushed through him as his words were met with silence. He pulled out the sonic and tried to override the keypad on the door but nothing happened. "What's wrong? It's deadlocked."

"There is no deadlock." River told him, trying to override the controls herself.

"Don't blink, Amy! Don't even blink!" The Doctor called out desperately. "Why can't she hear me?" He asked River.

"It's a communications pod, it's soundproof." River said, still looking over the keypad. At the buzz of the sonic she looked over at the Doctor, "What are you doing?"

"Cutting the power. It's using the screen; I'm turning the screen off." The Doctor kicked the container in frustration when the sonic was unable to cut the power. "It's no good, it's deadlocked the whole system."

"There's no deadlock." River insisted.

"There is now!" He yelled. He couldn't believe he'd been so stupid to leave Amy in there with the Angel. "Amy!" He called, wishing that she could hear him. "Can you turn it off?" He'd never hated her silence until now. "What are you doing?" He asked River when he saw the tiny blowtorch in her hand.

"I'm trying to cut through." She said, "It's not even warm."

"There's no way in." He told himself, "It's not physically possible." He kicked the contained again, wishing that there was something he could do. He knew the danger that lay ahead the adventures he shared with his companions, he'd experienced it too many times to count. Why did he ever listen to River? He should have ran in the opposite direction when he dropped her off. "Just keep looking at it." He told Amy, "Don't stop looking!"

River had given up trying to cut through the metal wall, now she was skimming through the journal looking for something that would help them. She stopped on a page, rereading a single sentence underlined, "'_The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the door. __Beware what may enter there.'" _She said aloud, mulling over the words.

The Doctor turned to look at her, "What? Say it again River."

'_The eyes are not the windows of the soul, they are the door. __Beware what may enter there.'" _

"Amy, not the eyes." He said. "Look anywhere, but don't look at the eyes."

-xox-

"I'm sorry!" Amy cried, "I didn't believe you. But how can it be real? It's just a recording."

"I don't know, I've never encountered an Angel that's done this. Are you looking at the Angel?" Killa asked as an idea formed.

"Of course I am!"

"I'm going to try and see if I can pull the plug."

Through wide frightened eyes, Amy watched as Killa crossed the floor and crouched down underneath the screen that was still playing the recording, reaching for the cords feeding the image. Amy blinked for only a moment, she didn't even notice that she had until she saw the Angel standing in the centre of the room. "Doctor! Doctor!" She tried to keep an eye on the Angel as she turned her head to yell at the door, but as Amy looked back she could see that the Angel was beginning to manifest itself in the room. It looked the same as it did in the screen, a black and white image that flickered out of view every few seconds, but the monster had raised its arms to the side of its head, showing off its long dagger like nails and vampire teeth. "Killa!"

Killa had tried pulling at the cables, but the bolts in place held onto the rubber tubing that slipped further through her hands with each frantic tug. Thoughts ran through her head, how would they escape this, would they escape, but most importantly, what would happen if the angel did fully manifest? As she heard Amy scream and turned to see that the beast had moved closer towards the young woman, she decided that she didn't really want to know the answer to that last question. Trying to think of a way to turn off the screen, Killa realised what it was that she should have said to them all. "Amy!"

The girl looked at her over through the Angel, terror etched across her face.

"Keep looking at it! Don't blink. I'll find a way to break the connection. Just don't blink or it's lights out for both of us." Killa turned back to look at the screen, she knew how to break it. It was the only thing she could think of. Not something she wanted to do, but the only thing she could think of. Killa closed her eyes and breathed in deeply through her nose trying to calm herself before rising to her feet. She could faintly hear the Doctor and River yelling at Amy from the other side of the container, but through the blood pounding through her ears, it was as if someone had turned down the volume significantly. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that there wasn't much time left, Amy was going to blink soon, that was a given. Humans couldn't not blink for long periods. Fear might keep her alive for some time, but it wouldn't stop all physiological traits forever. Pulling back her arm, she pushed it forward hitting the screen with the full extent of her strength, breaking the inch thick glass on impact, bruising a few of her fingers in the process and severing the connection which the Angel was using to project itself into the space. Cradling her fist, she turned to see River and the Doctor enter the unit, River moving to Amy's side to check that she was okay, while the Doctor pushed her out of the way to look at the screen cables. Using his sonic, he managed to pull out the cords with an ease that Killa couldn't help but envy. Looking at the glass however, the look on the Doctor's face transformed from concern into curiosity. He knew, just as she did, that no human would have the strength to break the screen.

"River. Hug Amy." The Doctor ordered. Killa slipped out of the room, unnoticed by River and Amy, but not the Doctor.

"Why?" Amy asked.

"'Cause I'm busy." He said, taking a reading from the sonic.

"I'm fine." Amy said. She turned to Killa, but the woman who had saved her was no longer there.

"You're brilliant!" River reassured Amy, seeing her slight frown. "So it was here?" River asked the Doctor. "That was the Angel?"

"That was a projection of the Angel." He corrected. "It's reaching out, getting a good look at us. It's no longer dormant." He looked at the sonic again, thinking, before placing it back in the top pocket inside his jacket.

A charge was detonated and Amy felt her fear returning. It felt heavy in the bottom of her stomach and the thought of going through dark tunnels in search of the Angel made her feel queasy.

"Plus one positive!"

Father Octavia stood in the doorway, "Doctor, we're through." He waited outside for the Time Lord, giving him a moment with his companion.

The Doctor looked at Amy, "Do you want to stay in the TARDIS?" He hoped that she would say yes, so he wouldn't have to worry about her being in danger, but as much as he wanted her to be safe, he wanted her with him.

"You're not leaving me behind, Doctor."

The Doctor smiled. "Okay. Come along Pond!" He said as the exited the pod.

"Coming?" River asked Amy from the doorway, when she realised that the ginger was not behind her.

"Yeah, coming." Amy said, rubbing the corner of her eye, trying to get rid of the feeling of something lightly sandpapering her eye. "There's just…something in my eye."

* * *

**Constructive criticism please.** Don't simply say you liked it, tell me what you liked about it and why you liked it. The same if you didn't like it; what didn't you like and why you didn't.

I have some issues with it myself, so don't hesitate to point anything out. I will go back and fix them.

I will hopefully be updating on a fortnightly basis, but some chapters may come quicker as I have already written bits of chapters.


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